Got Questions FAQ

About Us

NEORSD was created in 1972 by the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court to assume the operation and management of the major wastewater collection and treatment facilities serving the Cleveland metropolitan area.

NEORSD is an independent political subdivision of the State of Ohio and is not part of any city, county or other governmental entity. It is governed by a seven-member Board of Trustees who serve five-year staggered terms. Three members are presently appointed by the Mayor of the City of Cleveland, three by the Suburban Council of Governments and one by the Cuyahoga County Executive.

Billing

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District calculates your bill by multiplying your water consumption (measured in MCF, or 7,480 gallons) by the appropriate sewer rate. A base charge is then added to that total.

Homestead Rates are available for customers who are 65 years or older, or under 65 who are totally disabled. The property must be owner-occupied and total household income limits do apply. See our Rates page for details.

The District adopted the Summer Residential Sprinkling User Charge Program in 1993 to provide a major benefit to residential customers. We refer to it as the Summer Sprinkling Program. Under this program, summer residential sewer bills are based upon the lower of average winter consumption, or actual summer usage. For more information about this program, or to apply, click here.

Sewer Rates: Sewer rate questions should be directed to NEORSD’s Customer Service Department at (216) 881-8247 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.
For information about your water rate or charges, or account updates such as name changes or request for final bills, please contact your billing agent. See your bill for more information, or select from the numbers below:

Our Regional Stormwater Management Program is designed to address stream flooding, erosion, and water-quality issues across our service area. These projects are funded based on a fee assessed on the amount of impervious surface (such as driveways, parking lots, and rooftops) on a customer’s property.Learn more about the program.

Because we have relationships with other agencies who help us with billing (known as billing agents), the answer to some common questions depend on your billing agent. These include:

How do I pay my bill? What are my payment options?

Can I look up my account online?

How do I change my name on my account?

How do I discontinue service or request a final bill?

How do I reset my online billing password?

To help you find the help you need, enter your property address on our Billing Agent Search and see your local officials and billing agent contact information. Still can’t find what you’re looking for? Submit a message using our Ask Us page or call (216) 881-8247

Stormwater

Stormwater-related problems must be addressed regionally because what happens in one community can affect another. Often one community addresses a problem and may inadvertently move that problem downstream to the next community. Managing stormwater flows is necessary to protect our natural resources, reduce streambank erosion and decrease the pollutants in streams and rivers. If these issues are not addressed today, the problems will continue to get worse and will be more costly to solve in the future.

Stormwater-related problems include the flooding of streets that stops traffic from moving, or the collapse of streambanks from erosion that causes bridges to crumble or roads to fail. These problems occur at one time or another in every community in our service area.

The Regional Stormwater Management Program will address flooding, streambank erosion and water quality issues in our waterways throughout Northeast Ohio which have been ignored for many years. This will be accomplished through planning, maintenance and construction of stormwater-related projects.

Some communities are taking steps individually to reduce the impacts of stormwater. However, each community can generally only work within their own borders to solve problems. This does not work well because stormwater issues are bigger than any one community. These issues are regional, much of the flow from one community drains into another community. Adding to the problem is that there is not a regional agency coordinating stormwater efforts between all communities. The result is that one community can solve a stormwater problem and may inadvertently move that problem to the next downstream community.

There is a list of early action projects and plans for maintenance activities that the Sewer District will do, which include removing debris, repairing streams to protect roads and fixing failing dams. NEORSD will restart master planning and inspection and maintenance activities on the approximately 450 miles of streams, rivers, and creeks in our service area.

NEORSD has been the leader in clean water for over 40 years, protecting the environment and the health of over 1 million residents in 62 Greater Cleveland communities. As an established regional organization, NEORSD is uniquely positioned to address the issues of stormwater because the problems cross community boundaries requiring multi-jurisdictional solutions and coordination.

Clean water is one of our region’s most valuable resources. It affects your drinking water, your overall quality of life, your property values, and your community. Protecting our clean water is not something that can be done by one person or one community alone. A regional stormwater management program is a critical component in protecting our clean water.

The Regional Stormwater Management Program is structured to address flooding, erosion, and debris issues along area streams, which in turn will protect Lake Erie, our region’s most valuable natural resource. More locally, communities can benefit by taking advantage of the Community Cost-Share Program in which 25% of the stormwater revenue collected within a community will be available for its own municipal stormwater-management projects such as debris removal or flooding abatement.

Determining the causes of basement flooding is a complex process. In the majority of cases addressing basement flooding is the responsibility of the property owner and caused by local or property-specific issues. When these problems occur, NEORSD will work with local communities and homeowners to determine if the cause is stormwater-related and if the proposed solution is within the responsibility of the Regional Stormwater Management Program. We will also work with community officials to determine the causes and potential solutions.

Stormwater management encompasses more than storm sewers in our region. Stormwater runs off all hard surfaces – driveways, rooftops, patios – on all properties, and makes its way to streams, either by flowing over land or through pipes. Increases in stormwater runoff from these hard surfaces causes flooding, erosion and water-quality problems, and the Regional Stormwater Management Program will address these problems.

While the Regional Stormwater Management Program will address regional stream flooding, erosion and water quality issues, problems with flooding at adjacent properties will need to be addressed by the homeowner. Your community may also have suggestions so please contact your community representatives. NEORSD can offer advice and suggestions, as well, so please contact the NEORSD Watershed Team Leader for your community. A listing of Watershed Team Leaders can be found here.

The fee is based on Equivalent Residential Units or ERU which equals 3,000 square feet of impervious area. Impervious area is a surface that prevents or slows water from soaking into the ground. Examples of impervious areas are rooftops, traveled gravel, concrete or asphalt paved areas, private roads, driveways, parking lots and patios. You can view your property’s ERU calculation at here.

Impervious area is measured for each parcel by digitizing impervious features such as rooftops, driveways, and parking lots from aerial photographs gathered from Cuyahoga, Lorain, Lake, and Summit counties. Our Fee Finder shows you the regional stormwater management program service area boundary and your fee calculation.

Since there are no dedicated federal or state funds available to address regional stormwater problems, local communities and regional agencies are financially responsible for fixing stormwater problems and funding stormwater programs. Monies can come from a dedicated stormwater fee that is typically based on the amount of impervious surfaces, such as pavement and rooftops. In an effort to assess a fair and reasonable fee, those with more impervious surfaces, such as large parking lots, will be charged more under the Regional Stormwater Management Program because the stormwater fee is based on the amount of hard surface on any particular parcel. Credits that reduce the stormwater fee will be considered to recognize individual efforts made to reduce a property’s impact. For more on the Stormwater Fee Credit Program, download a copy of the previously approved (2012) Regional Stormwater Management Program Credit Manual.

Our current sewer revenue is used for a variety of services, including the collection and treatment of sanitary sewage, monitoring water quality, and control of combined sewer overflows. The services we will provide under the Regional Stormwater Management Program require a separate, dedicated revenue source to accomplish all of the Program’s objectives.

There are a few types of parcels that are exempt from the Stormwater Fee. These are public roads and highways, public airport runways and taxiways, railroad rights-of-way, many city-owned properties, and public and not-for-profit cemeteries.

When stormwater billing resumes in the second half of 2016, the Stormwater Fee will range from $3.09 per month, $5.15 per month or $9.27 per month depending on the amount of impervious area per residence. Account holders that qualify for the Homestead program will pay a stormwater fee of $2.07 per month. The Stormwater Fee may increase each year based on funding needs necessary to continue to effectively implement the Regional Stormwater Management Program.

When stormwater billing resumes in the second half of 2016, the Stormwater Fee for commercial properties will be $5.15 per Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) which equals 3,000 square feet of impervious area. The total Stormwater Fee for commercial properties depends on the amount of impervious area in the properties’ parcel. For commercial customers with more than 10 ERUs, or 30,000 square feet of impervious surface on a single parcel, their Stormwater Fee will reflect a reduction due to the declining block fee. The declining block fee applies a progressively lower ERU charge as the number of ERUs increases on a parcel over 10 ERUs.

For those residential customers who qualify, NEORSD offers Homestead, Affordability and Crisis Assistance programs. NEORSD also offers various Stormwater Fee credits to both residential and non-residential customers for stormwater control measures on their properties. In addition, NEORSD offers two specific Stormwater-Fee saving programs for qualifying schools – these are Education credits (Title V, Section 5.0804c) and a discounted stormwater rate for schools with greater than 25% of students qualifying for the Free Lunch program (Title V, Section 5.0713). These programs are detailed as noted in the previously approved Title V Stormwater Management Code. You can also find descriptions in the complete Credit Manual.

Fees paid to counties or cities will be used to improve their local stormwater systems. This is often for storm sewer or catch basin maintenance, both very necessary activities which are not actions covered by the Regional Stormwater Management Program (RSMP). These local efforts do not resolve large regional issues such as stream flooding and erosion that impact infrastructure across Northeast Ohio. The RSMP’s Community Cost-Share Program can help defray the local costs of these efforts through reimbursement grants directed to municipal governments.

Customers can receive a reduction in their Stormwater Fee by implementing District-approved stormwater control measures and completing the related credit applications. There are various stormwater control measures that residential customers or businesses can implement to qualify to receive stormwater fee credits. To learn more about the credit program, you may request a credit application that outlines the required criteria to receive a credit, or you can download a PDF.

Residential customers, who institute one of the District-approved stormwater control measures, can apply to receive a flat reduction of 25% of the stormwater fee. Residential and non-residential customers can apply for the stormwater quality credit which is up to 25% reduction and/or the stormwater quantity credit which is up to 75% reduction. Schools can also apply for the education credit which is a 25% reduction. The total credit any customer could receive is 100%.

Undeveloped properties with no structures or impervious area will not be charged. Vacant or unoccupied properties with structures or impervious area will be charged. The fee will be assessed to the property owner.

Having a well or septic tank is not related to stormwater runoff from your property. Parcels with wells and septic systems still have stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces such as rooftops and driveways. This runoff eventually goes into the regional stormwater system and has to be effectively managed, which is why a stormwater fee is charged in these cases.

Each of the fees has a unique purpose. The fixed charge relates to sanitary sewer and compensates for unmetered water that seeps or leaks into our region’s aging sewer infrastructure and is treated by our wastewater treatment plants. The stormwater fee will provide regional stormwater management services that will address flooding, erosion and water quality in our area streams and river.

Failure to pay the stormwater fee will result in NEORSD placing your account in collection status. If payment is not received after account has been placed in collection status, NEORSD may take one or more of the following steps: stop water service to the account holder, place a lien on the applicable parcel, and/or take other steps as are reasonable to collect the unpaid debt.

These areas are considered in the ERU calculation because they are “developed” areas. According to Chapter 2 of Title V, the Sewer District’s Stormwater Management Code, impervious surfaces include “developed areas that either prevent or significantly slow the infiltration of water into the ground.” This includes roof tops, driveways, traveled gravel, as well as areas that have been graded, filled, or used to store equipment or materials. You can use our FeeFinder to see your property’s impervious surface area calculation.

Gravel driveways, brick patios, and decks are included in impervious surface calculations because they meet the definition of impervious surfaces. According to Section 5.0212 of the Title V Stormwater Management Code, the definition of impervious surfaces is developed surfaces that either prevent or significantly slow the infiltration of water into the ground compared to the manner that such water entered the ground prior to development, or which cause water to run off in greater quantities or at an increased rate of flow than that present prior to development. Impervious surfaces shall include, without limitation, rooftops, traveled gravel areas, asphalt or concrete paved areas, private access roads, driveways and parking lots, and patio areas.”

Yes. If you had an approved credit from NEORSD prior to the program halting, that approved credit will be applied to your stormwater fee. NEORSD staff will contact you about submitting necessary renewal forms as a condition of the credit.

Yes. NEORSD will re-open all pending Stormwater Billing Inquiries. Analysis of each inquiry will be made and results of the inquiry will be communicated to the customer. If it is determined that a refund is warranted, adjustments to customer accounts will be made accordingly.

According to the Ohio Supreme Court, the Stormwater Fee is not a tax. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled on September 15, 2015 NEORSD has the authority to charge a fee to support the services of the Regional Stormwater Management Program.

Fish are nutritious, high in protein and good to eat. Most Ohio sport fish are of high quality but some fish may contain low levels of chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), mercury and lead from certain waters within the state. Choose smaller fish rather than lager fish for consumption. Smaller fish within a species tend to have fewer contaminates than larger fish and usually taste a lot better. Properly trimming and cooking your fish will help reduce health risks associated with eating fish.
Women of child-bearing age and young children (age 6 and under) should limit their consumption of fish (any species) from any water body in Ohio to one meal a week. For additional, more detailed information and to stay current on Ohio sport fish consumption advisories, periodically check the web site Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory or contact the Ohio Department of Health or Ohio EPA for the latest information.

Benthic macroinvertebrates are common inhabitants of lakes and streams where they are important in moving energy through food webs. The term “benthic” means “bottom-living” and indicates that these organisms usually inhabit bottom substrates for at least part of their life cycles; the prefix “macro” indicates that these organisms are large enough to be retained by mesh sizes of approximately 200-500 μm (micro-meters).

In freshwater, macroinvertebrates include insects, mollusks (clams, snails and mussels), annelids (worms and leeches), and others. In most freshwater, the larval insects dominate the macroinvertebrate community. Data obtained by collecting and identifying these organisms provide an excellent tool for assessing water quality in streams and lakes.

During the summer months, waters at public beaches along the Lake Erie shoreline are sampled and analyzed for E. coli, a type of bacteria that is typically found in the intestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals, including humans. When E. coli is found in water at elevated levels, it indicates that people swimming in the water face an increased risk from disease-causing microorganisms. Resulting illnesses can include gastroenteritis, skin irritations, and respiratory, eye, ear and nose infections. When the amount of E. coli in the water exceeds acceptable levels established by the State, beaches are posted with signs that advise against swimming.

Such contamination of a water body can be the result overflowing sewage and storm water runoff that contains animal and bird waste, for example. Therefore, elevated E. coli levels will often follow a significant wet weather event. Some urban areas, such as Cleveland and its closest suburbs, have sewer systems hydraulically overloaded during a wet weather event, these “combined” sewers are designed to overflow to a stream or a lake without the treatment that sewage typically receives during drier weather conditions.

NEORSD has worked to minimize combined sewer overflows and will continue to invest in water-quality improvements like Project Clean Lake and other system enhancements.

Business Opportunity Program

The Business Opportunity Program is designed to promote diversity, inclusion, and local business opportunities. You can find the specific criteria to become a certified as a Minority, Women or Small Business Enterprise (MWSBE) in the Sewer District’s Business Opportunity Program application or you may call Tiffany Jordan at (216) 881-6600.

The program provides benefits for both NEORSD and the business community in our region. NEORSD is implementing a Small Business and Minority/Women program to focus on procurement opportunities in the areas of goods, professional services, construction and engineering for small businesses located in the Metropolitan Statistical area.

The goal of the Business Opportunity Program is to increase contracting opportunities MWSBE companies, resulting in greater job availability and business growth for the local business community. In addition to contributing to the economic well-being of the region, bringing new MWSBEs into the pool of companies doing business with NEORSD enhances the NEORSD’s competitive bidding processes and ensures that NEORSD customers are afforded the greatest value for their monetary contributions.

Small businesses that complete the program application and are certified by NEORSD for two years will have enhanced contracting opportunities. For purchases of goods and services under $50,000, NEORSD will consult the MWSBE registry and reach out to those who are certified to provide needed services. Prime contractors and consultants will use the certification directory to identify subcontractors for NEOERSD projects as they are required to meet project-specific goals for the use of certified MWSBEs as subcontractors or sub-consultants. Only those businesses that are certified under the NEORSD’s MWSBE program will be counted towards fulfilling the District’s MWSBE goals.

MBE stands for Minority Business Enterprise. A MBE is owned, operated, and controlled by one or more members of a minority race. Similarly, WBE stands for Women Business Enterprise, and is sometimes referred to as FBE or Female Business Enterprise. A WBE or FBE is owned, operated, and controlled by one or more members of the female gender or what Ohio law legally defines as a woman. A SBE is defined based upon economic criteria established by NEORSD. It is a race- and gender-neutral designation.

No. The MWSBE application for NEORSD is for the NEORSD’s program only. This application is not a part of any joint certification. However, if you are certified with other agencies, the MWSBE certification process at NEORSD is easier. Please see our MWSBE application to find out how.

A Disparity Study determines whether and to what extent that MBEs and WBEs are ly and passively subjected to discrimination in NEORSD’s contracting marketplace. The study involves a statistical analysis to determine if a legal basis exists to support NEORSD’s use of race and gender based goals in its contracting processes. You can download the complete study online.

You may visit NEORSD’s Bids & Proposals webpage to learn more about bidding opportunities with a value of $25,000 or more. When you see a bidding opportunity that you are interested in, please attend the pre-bid conference or stop by NEORSD’s Purchasing Department to view project plans and specifications.

NEORSD holds a pre-bid conference for items and projects being advertised for bid. It provides the opportunity for prime contractors to ask questions about the bid specifications and to raise any concerns about the bid documents or project schedule. Most pre-bid conferences include representatives from NEORSD and interested prime contractors. Subcontractors may attend these meetings, which provide subcontractors the opportunity to meet prime contractors who will need to meet MWSBE subcontracting goals.

The Bidders List has contact information for individual firms that have already purchased plans. You may also call the Office of Contract Compliance at (216) 881-6600 and request a list of firms that attended the pre-bid conference, as well.

Certified SBEs currently working on District contracts will remain under the former SBE guidelines. However, you are encouraged to complete a new MWSBE application to be considered for NEORSD’s MWSBE program.

Plan Review

Development and re-development projects in the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District service area are subject to review and require District approval prior to beginning construction. Depending on the nature of the project, one or more types of review may be required. To determine if a project is subject to Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District review, submit your project information form to: CDPP@neorsd.org.

Project Clean Lake

Project Clean Lake is a program to enable us to meet Clean Water Act standards and address water quality issues caused by raw sewage that overflows into the environment during rain events.

In 1972, the Clean Water Act was created to address water quality issues, like raw sewage discharges.

Although NEORSD has reduced raw sewage discharges significantly over the years and holds permits for discharge points, the EPA considers us in violation of the Clean Water Act because not all discharges have been controlled to required levels. We and the federal government entered into a Consent Decree to address this issue.

It’s a document that spells out what we will do to reduce raw sewage discharges and when it will complete the work.The Consent Decree is a legally binding document entered into by your Sewer District, the Department of Justice, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office. The document details what we call Project Clean Lake.

Project Clean Lake is a $3 billion, 25-year program that will reduce the total volume of raw sewage discharges from 4.5 billion gallons to 494 million gallons annually. Over 98% of wet weather flows in our combined sewer system will be receiving treatment in 25 years.

At the heart of the Consent Decree is the construction of large-scale storage tunnels and treatment plant enhancements.

Gray” infrastructure: Tunnels

We will construct seven tunnels, ranging from two to five miles in length, up to 300 feet underground and up to 24 feet in diameter–large enough to park a semi-truck.

The tunnels are similar to the nearly complete Mill Creek Tunnel, a structure with the capacity to store 75 million gallons of combined sewage for treatment at NEORSD’s Southerly Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In 2011, we began construction on its second large-scale project, the Euclid Creek Tunnel System. The five other remaining tunnel projects are: the Dugway Tunnel, Shoreline Tunnel, Southerly Tunnel, Big Creek Tunnel and the Westerly Tunnel.

Infrastructure: Treatment plant enhancements

At the Easterly and Southerly plants, the maximum amount of wastewater that can receive secondary treatment will increase. Additionally, at the Westerly plant, the maximum amount of treatment that can take place at NEORSD’s Combined Sewer Overflow Treatment Facility (located adjacent to Westerly) will increase.

Also, the District has been given an opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of lower-energy treatment options through pilot demonstration projects. If successful, we can avoid implementation of costly, energy-intensive treatment technologies.

Green infrastructure and stormwater control measures

Project Clean Lake includes a minimum of $42 million in green infrastructure projects. This includes stormwater control measures (or SCMs) to store, infiltrate, and evapotranspirate stormwater before it even makes its way to the combined sewer system.

Our agreement includes flexibility allowing us to consider appropriate alternative solutions whether they be gray, green, or a combination of both.

Additionally, we will work with the City of Cleveland to assess the use of vacant lots for green infrastructure projects and leverage economic development opportunities in redevelopment corridors.

This could reduce the long-term cost of the program while enhancing neighborhoods, providing economic development opportunities, and rebuilding our community.

We have worked cooperatively and positively with federal and state governments on CSO issues.

Since 2004, District has negotiated with state and federal environmental regulators to obtain approval of the plan to reduce raw sewage discharges, the last of which was submitted to the state in 2002:

Easterly District and Southerly District CSO facilities plans were submitted in 2002.

In July 2010, NEORSD and state and federal environmental regulators agreed on the basic elements of an acceptable proposal. Specific issues included the length of time allotted to complete construction projects, the cost of the program and affordability.

The Euclid Creek Tunnel was the first Project Clean Lake tunnel to be completed in 2015. And the Easterly Tunnel Dewatering Pump Station will go online later this year.

Like us, over 770 other cities around the country–including Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo–have negotiated (or continue to negotiate) a long-term plan to address sewer discharges.

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About us

Our mission is to provide progressive management of sewage and stormwater through fiscal responsibility, innovation, and community partnerships.Our vision is to be the environmental leader in enhancing quality of life in the region and protecting its water resources.